Barmouth rang in 2020 on time, thanks to its recommissioned town clock.

Many people know that in recent years, time-keeping has been an issue for the town clock on St John’s Church.

After nearly 125 years of service, the clock had to be manually corrected by a volunteer on an almost daily basis – a feat which involved having to walk up 54 stairs.

But with the electric quarter hour chime motor also finally stopping after 50 years, the 10 congregation members at St John’s started to raise money towards its repair at the beginning of 2019.

A generous grant from Barmouth Town Council of just over £4,000 provided the bulk of the amount required, and meant that Bro Ardudwy Ministry Area were able to not only replace the quarter hour chime motor but also to add a pendulum regulator to the clock.

Cllr Owain Pritchard, who is also one of the wardens at St John’s Church, said: “The regulator uses a sophisticated electronic clock to compare real time and the time that the mechanical clock is set to, and based on any difference between the two it grabs the pendulum and stops it for a certain length of time to ensure that when the hour bell of the clock rings the strike is accurate to within one second of real time. It is so accurate that it even puts my digital watch to shame. I have to use my mobile phone’s clock to check if it’s accurate or not!”

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